Llangollen Canal breach
For my first two stories this month, I turned to the UK inland waterways, always a source of inspiration. The first story is shocking as you are about to find out.
Just before the Christmas holidays, a severe breach occurred on the Llangollen Canal near New Mills Lift Bridge, Whitchurch, with devastating consequences for several boaters. Footage of this extraordinary event shot around the UK news channels as it made the headlines.
Imagine the scene – with no prior warning, two boats were washed into the breach hole, and a further two feared to be at risk right next to the hole, including one part-over the edge of the breached canal. A further six boats were sitting on the drained bed of the canal in a section that had run dry.
Emergency response teams managed to secure the site, and there were no reported injuries. Canal engineers have been working flat-out on site since the incident to secure the area. It is expected to take most of this year, at a cost of several million pounds, to restore and make good the damage.
National honour for waterways photographer
National Historic Ships UK, a government-funded, but independent organisation, has announced the winners of its annual photography competition celebrating maritime heritage across the UK. The organisation provides objective advice to UK governments and local authorities, funding bodies, and the historic ships sector on all matters relating to historic vessels.
Kev Maslin from Tipton in the West Midlands won the People’s Choice Award in the photography category – the only award voted for by the public. His atmospheric black-and-white image, Getting Ready for the Off, secured more than 40% of the almost 500 votes cast.
The photograph was taken during a Historic Narrow Boat Club cruise to Ellesmere Port. Kev spotted Reuben Carter ‘swabbing the decks’ of his 1937 narrowboat Stamford at the start point in Chester and swooped with his camera to capture this evocative image.
Archaeologists unearth ancient “Party Boat” in Alexandria’s harbour
Beneath the shifting waters of Alexandria’s eastern harbour, on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, lie the drowned remnants of a once-splendid city. Submerged by earthquakes and a rising sea level, these lost monuments have become the focus of survey and excavations by the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology, in conjunction with Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
Much of their recent work has centered around Antirhodos Island, revealing a temple to the ancient Egyptian goddess Isis, which was renovated by Cleopatra VII, and the Timonium – a palace built by her partner, the Roman general Mark Antony.
The most recent excavations have revealed a shipwreck dating to the early Roman period. Buried beneath the sand were the remains of a thalamagos. This is a type of Nile yacht with a very colourful reputation in Roman literature as “party boat”. But the discovery of such a vessel in a busy commercial harbour was unusual.
The wrecks in the Royal Port were discovered through a new high-resolution sonar survey of the seabed. This produced enormous quantities of data that were fed into a machine learning algorithm trained to recognise the “signatures” of shipwrecks. The initial results were promising, with excavations on targets generated by the algorithm revealing a small boat and a 30m-long merchant ship.
World’s first floating pickleball court features at Toronto International Boat Show
It seems the world’s love affair with pickleball knows no bounds as the sport continues to grow exponentially across the globe. Call me old-fashioned, but as a keen and traditional tennis player, I am afraid I am inclined to turn my nose up at this new-fangled sporting extravaganza!
For those unfamiliar with North America’s fastest-growing sport, pickleball is a hybrid of tennis, badminton, and ping-pong. The game is played with ping pong-style paddles (which make a rather irritating sound when the ball is struck) on a badminton-sized court with a tennis-style net. The court is 20’x44′ with a 34″ high net and uses hybrid rules based on doubles tennis.
And now it seems that the booming sport for athletes of all types is breaking into the boating world, as it made its debut at the recent Toronto International Boat Show. The 2026 show featured the world’s largest indoor pickleball court.
The sport has become so popular among boaters that several superyacht shipyards have now built vessels with a pickleball court integrated into the deck. Both the Royal Caribbean and Cantiere delle Marche shipyards launched superyachts with a built-in court over the last year.
Canada’s Harbour Quay Marina renamed Alberni Lighthouse Marina
Let’s end this month on a gentle note. I have never seen Alberni Lighthouse at Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, Canada, for myself, but what a beautiful and iconic structure it clearly is.
It seems that as of 1 January 2026, Harbour Quay Marina has officially been renamed Alberni Lighthouse Marina. The press release informs me that the new name reflects a natural and familiar fit, inspired by the iconic lighthouse that serves as a local landmark and trusted wayfinder in the Alberni Harbour. For decades, it’s been how boaters and locals alike describe the marina’s location, and now the new name makes it official.
One wonders why it took the authorities so long to make this obvious and welcome name change.
That’s all for now – more next month.
Mike Schwarz